Biographies Of Keynote Social Science Festival Participants

Elliott Leyton is a professor of anthropology at Memorial University in Newfoundland. He holds research and faculty appointments in Ireland and England, has delivered lectures throughout Europe, the United States, and Canada, and is a past president of the Canadian Sociology and Anthropology Association. Because of his recognized expertise in the field of serial killers he has established close links with police forces around the world. Professor Leyton's work was profiled on CBC radio Ideas series under the title: "Thor Murder Guy: The Ideas of Elliott Leyton". His books include:
Hunting Humans The Rise of Modern Multiple Murderers (on sale in the Vanier College Bookstore)
Dying Hard: The Ravages of Industrial Carnage Bureaucracy and World View: Studies in the Logic of Official Interpretation (with Don Handelman)
The Myth of Delinquency: An Anatomy of Juvenile Nihilism Violence and Public Anxiety.
A Canadian Case (with W. O'Grady and J. Overton)
Men of Blood: Murder in Evetyday Life (on sale in the Vanier College Bookstore)
Touched by Fire: Doctors Without Borders in a Third World Crisis

Margaret Somerville whom Peter Gzowski once described as "the smartest woman in Canada" is the founding director of the McGill Centre for Medicine, Ethics and Law and holds professorships in both the Faculty of Law and the Faculty of Medicine at McGill University. She has received a number of honorary doctorates in law and is the recipient of many awards and honors. Professor Somerville has been active in the worldwide development of bioethics and in the study of wider legal and ethical aspects of medicine and science.
She is the author of:
The Ethical Canary: Science, Society and the Human Spirit.
Do We Care?: Renewing Canada's Commitment To Health
Death Talk
Christopher M. Spence is a former football player with the Canadian Football League and holds a PhD in Education. He has applied his knowledge of social sciences to understand the relationship between sports, education and racism.In his daytime job, Mr. Spence is Principal of Lawrence Heights Middle School. In just three years, he has created a model school out of one of Toronto's toughest schools. M. Spence is an engaging and popular speaker. Mr. Spence was profiled in the June 2001 issue of Readers Digest for these achievements. He has just published a book relating his experience. He is the author of
The Skin I'm In: Racism, Sport and Education - (on sale in the Vanier College Bookstore) which is considered a reference in the field. He has also produced a video on the same topic called Skin Games.
On Time! On Task! On a Mission! A Year in the Life of a Middle School Principle.
Gary Beitel is a renowned Montreal-based documentary film-maker. He has been making documentaries for the past 20 years. He works primarily in Canada, but has also made films in West Africa, South America and Mexico. His films focus primarily on the challenges of inter-cultural relations but also on the dynamics of personal and social change. They have been shown on Canadian and European television and have won both national and international awards. Some of Mr. Beitel's films are:
Bonjour! Shalom!
Radio Novelas
Aller-Retour
Bittersweet Deliveries
Asylum
Endnotes
Of Wings of Song
My Dear Clara
Vive le Quebec...Angle!
Thomas G. Rozinski has degrees in economics, political science and law from Yale and Harvard universities. He recently served for seven years in the Giuliani administration, working in the Parks department and then the Homeless Services department, where he served as Commissioner. He has taught in the Government department at Harvard University and now teaches International Relations at Touro College. Before entering city government, he was also a partner in a large New York City law firm.
Emanuel Lowi is a Montreal-born writer and photographer. Educated in the city's Jewish day school system, he went on to earn a BA in English and Political Science at Brandeis University, a degree in Education from McGill and a Master's degree in Journalism from Columbia University in New York. His work as a journalist has focused on the Arctic and Canada's aboriginal peoples -- especially the Inuit -- as well as the Middle East, where he spent considerable time visiting and living with the Kurds, the Druze and various Bedouin tribes. He has worked for National Geographic magazine and his articles have been published in Canada in various magazines and newspapers. He is currently the Executive Editor of Doctor's Review, a travel magazine for Canadian physicians.
Jim Torezyner is professor of Social Work at McGill University. He is also Founder and Director of the McGill Middle East Program in Civil Society and Peace Building;The Montreal Consortium for Human Rights Advocacy Training; The McGill Consortium for Ethnicity and Strategic Social Planning and Project Genesis. Professor Torezyner is the author of numerous books, articles and conferences and is an advisor to various government agencies, community organizations and Universities in Canada and the Middle East. In addition to his academic work, he is widely sought after and respected as a community organizer and frequently appears in major Canadian media with regards to topics relating to poverty, multiculturalism, human rights advocacy and peace building. The McGill Middle East Program in Civil Society and Peace Building, of which he is Founder and Director, brings together Israeli, Jordanian and Palestinian academic institutions and non-governmental organizations to reduce inequality, advance civil society, and, thereby, promote peace.
Luba Serge is an urban planner with a background in sociology and has over twenty years of experience in research. She spent seven years at the municipal level in research and policy development. As an independent consultant her work in the last few years has included research into homeless young women, the link between the child welfare system and youth homelessness, and the impact of affordable housing programs on surrounding neighbourhoods and on crime prevention. She has acted as a consultant to the Benny Farm project and is a board member of a non-profit organisation that is trying to set up a housing trust fund to address the need for supportive housing. Current research includes an overview of the transition of Canadian youth to adulthood, particularly the school-work transition and family formation, as well as a study on housing options for older and chronically ill homeless persons living in shelters.
Roman Mukerjee is one of the "Founding Fathers of Vanier College" and a former professor of Humanities and Political Science at both the Ste. Croix and Snowdon Campuses. He left Vanier in the 1980s for Ottawa, where he worked as a Senior Policy Analyst in Multiculturalism and Race Relations for the Government of Canada in several federal departments and agencies. He has recently received a Government of Canada Grant to review international adoptions and the impact on cross-cultural and race relations in the family. He is also the parent of adopted children of diverse cultural and racial origins.
Shirley Sarna is a human rights educator who has worked for the Quebec Human Rights Commission for the past ten years. She has developed a number of curriculums in human rights education in Canada, France, Cameron and Indonesia. She has also developed and taught workshops on racism, homophobia, human rights literacy and peaceful conflict resolution.
Gail Levesque is a nurse at the Joliette Institution for Women in Joliette, Quebec, a prison for Women. She has been a nurse in the Institution for the last six years. Before working at Joliette, she spent most of her career working in hospital emergency wards. Ms. Levesque has participated in various national committees interested in the issues of physical and mental health of incarcerated women.